19 teachers have been removed from Florida district classrooms since the start of the school year

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Since the start of the 2024-2025 school year, 19 teachers have been removed from Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) classrooms at 16 locations.

The high number of teachers placed on temporary assignments is attributed to the launch of the district’s “Know the Line” boundary training initiative by new DCPS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier repatriated on August 26, Action News Jax reports.

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According to a video message from Bernier, the purpose of the initiative is to “inform all stakeholders about the healthy boundaries that should exist between students and staff.” We also want to ensure that students and families know how to recognize and report any behavior , which could exceed these limits.”

The launch of Know the Line was prompted by more than $1 million in settlements that DCPS paid to cover misconduct claims by teachers at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Action News Jax reports. There have been dozens of allegations of teacher misconduct at the school, with one teacher allegedly calling a student his “little girl” and asking her to come to his classroom.

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Since the campaign began, supervisors, students, community members and school leaders have completed more than 170 reports.

In one case, a student at Beauclerc Elementary School was taken to a local hospital after an adult knocked out the child’s teeth during the school day. The adult involved in the incident was removed from the classroom in late September. In total, three teachers from this school were removed from the classroom

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In another case last week, a middle school teacher was expelled from a classroom over allegations of inappropriate communication with a student that was sexual in nature.

What are appropriate boundaries between students and school staff?

The DCPS Know the Line initiative defines the following as promoting safe boundaries between students and school staff:

• communication – There should be no interactions between students and staff via phone calls, text messages or social media. The only appropriate communication between staff and students outside of school should occur through the following district-approved and monitored platforms: Teams, Rooms (in the district’s new app), or via email from duvalschools.org accounts. Personal communication is also discouraged on these platforms.
• Physical contact – Both employees and students are prohibited from any physical contact beyond a handshake, a high-five or a fist bump.
• Meet – We encourage our employees to plan ahead so that they are not alone with the students. There are certain cases where this may be unavoidable. For example, if school counseling, mental or physical health services are provided. In these cases, we encourage our staff to maintain students’ privacy while ensuring that they are within someone’s view.

The initiative also encourages students and families to report their concerns through a staff misconduct reporting form.